Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises gives readers a glimpse into the lives of a group of post-World War I American and British expatriates. Because they cannot find meaning or reason in their traumatic wartime experiences, these men and women (dubbed the "lost generation") have become jaded and careless. They find themselves unable to rely on the traditional values they once held, such as religion, love, justice, and morality. Their lives now apparently meaningless, they turn to alcohol, partying, and sex in a vain attempt to fill the psychological void they all feel. Throughout the novel, Hemingway expresses the triviality of the pursuits of the "lost generation" through his sparse, unadorned prose; he leaves it to the reader to search for hidden layers of meaning beneath the simplest dialogue or description.
             The action of the novel is expressed largely through dialogue. Hemingway also uses his characters' conversations to give the reader insight into their psyches and to demonstrate the meaninglessness of most of their interactions. When the protagonist Jake Barnes is introduced to a young American novelist at a dance club in Paris, the young man asks Jake if he finds the city "amusing." " 'Yes.' 'Really?' [...] 'For God's sake, [...] yes. Don't you?' " Jake and the novelist have nothing of substance to discuss, so they simply get drunk together. More outspoken characters, such as the femme fatale Brett Ashley, don't even pretend to find their acquaintances interesting: " 'This is a hell of a dull talk,' Brett said. 'How about some of that champagne?' " An abundance of such exchanges makes obvious to the reader the inconsequential nature of nearly all of the bonds formed between individuals in the novel. This inability to form genuine friendships is just one example of the banality of everyday life for members of the "lost generation."
             The actions of the narrator, Jake Barnes, as well as descriptions of his surroundings ...